Catskills became Mount Zion of comedy

Comedian Sid Caesar, with his fiancee, Florence, in the Catskills in the '50s, as seen in the documentary "When Comedy Went to School."

Comedian Sid Caesar, with his fiancee, Florence, in the Catskills in the '50s, as seen in the documentary "When Comedy Went to School."

Photo: International Film Circuit

Photo: International Film Circuit

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Comedian Sid Caesar, with his fiancee, Florence, in the Catskills in the '50s, as seen in the documentary "When Comedy Went to School."

Comedian Sid Caesar, with his fiancee, Florence, in the Catskills in the '50s, as seen in the documentary "When Comedy Went to School."

Photo: International Film Circuit

Catskills became Mount Zion of comedy

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They were the "Jewish Alps," the "Borscht Belt," "the mountains." They were family-oriented resorts in the Catskills, in upstate New York, where the package deal would include a room, buckets of gourmet food and entertainment by some of the greatest comic talents of the 20th century. They ranged from Woody Allen and Carl Reiner to Mel Brooks and Fanny Brice - often before making it in film or television.

"When I was a kid, I was a busboy and a lifeguard there," says comedian Robert Klein, narrator of the new documentary, "When Comedy Went to School." "In '59, I was the lifeguard at the Alamac Hotel; I actually saved a kid's life," though this was not exactly a well-liked child. "His parents tipped me $5. I could have gotten $15 from the staff to let him drown.

"That was like paradise; there was sex in the air, and food. Sex, food and comedy."

Klein's characterization - including sneaking into other hotels to take in soon-to-be legendary acts - is echoed by broadcasting great Larry King, a busboy at Grossinger's Resort Hotel in 1950 and '51, at ages 17 and 18.

"We (staff) would stand somewhere in the back and hide. I would see Buddy Hackett, Lenny Bruce, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar," says King, whose appearance in the documentary includes a ribald story of "scoring" for the first time with a guest - at home plate, no less.

A wonderful time

"It was a wonderful time, in the mountains. When I got into broadcasting, I started interviewing all these people I would sit as a 17-year-old and watch," he says. "Now I'm 23, I'm doing a show from a restaurant in Miami Beach; suddenly I'm interviewing Berle and Henny Youngman."

"When Comedy Went to School" offers a rough history of the Borscht Belt, focusing on its golden age - the '50s. Interviewees cite humor as a cultural coping mechanism for a community under unimaginable stress after the Holocaust, which would help explain the explosion of Jewish comic talent. Co-directors Mevlut Akkaya and Ron Frank include statistics demonstrating the extreme over-representation of Jewish performers among successful American comedians by the '70s. They note the name of one of the patriarchs of the Israelites, Isaac, means "He will laugh."

"It's about the legacy, these amazing comedians, but at the same time it's about the Catskills, this Jewish community," Akkaya says. "But the comedians - they affected so many others."

Frank says, "Meeting Jerry Lewis (for the film) was meeting my icon. I will say he really actually enjoyed our interview after being a bit standoffish. Toward the end, he didn't want us to go. Meeting Sid Caesar (et al) ... it was like meeting the guys from 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.' "

Akkaya adds, "Danny Kaye is one of my heroes because he was so talented. He was (one of the first) to make it big from the Catskills, and he was an idol of the people I respect a lot."

Klein describes a typical evening's program as starting with "a roller-skating act from Latvia, where a guy would swing his wife by her teeth so she's got 4Gs on her face; looks like the rocket experiment with the monkey. People applaud that.

"The second act was normally a mediocre singer, sometimes a woman, an old trouper; sometimes a guy who was a checkout boy at the A&P, handsome Italian kid with too much vibrato. He'd throw in a patronizing song about the Jews. That was a biggie." Klein ad-libs, in "sincere" Bronx patter, " 'Ladies and gentlemen, ya know I am not o' your fait' ...,' " before crooning in wise-guy Yiddish with a Cowardly Lion wobble.

Incredibly funny

Then the comics would take over, a surprising number emerging from hotel staffs. Among these: former busboys Lenny Bruce and Buddy Hackett. King counted Bruce among his friends ("Tragic," he says, "Lenny became an addict by accident."), but says, "The legend there was Buddy Hackett. He was incredibly funny."

Hackett's son, comedian Sandy, says, "My dad and Lenny were boyhood friends. I found this video of 'The Patrice Munsel Show' (circa 1951) - she was a huge opera star. If you watch the original 'Ocean's Eleven,' they're going down the strip and the marquee at the Riviera says, 'Patrice Munsel and Buddy Hackett.' She was the headliner. I'm watching the show, and she says, 'Would you please welcome the Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players ...' And who is it? My dad and Lenny Bruce."

Best friend

Sandy Hackett calls his father his "best friend," who didn't want him to navigate the rough waters of comedy but advised him nonetheless.

"He said, 'Learn every joke there is; you never know when you'll need it.' Someone is drunk in the audience and yells out something; if your computer's really working and you've learned every joke, it becomes the setup to a joke that's already in here. So I look lightning quick onstage."

Case in point: King tells of how friend (and Catskills vet) Mel Brooks responded to an angry patron at "The Producers' " Broadway opening.

So quick

"Intermission, a guy came running out, mad as hell," King says, "and said to him, 'I was in World War II, and you are defaming everything I fought for. You are making fun of Hitler! I hate this show!' Mel says, 'You were in World War II?' 'Yeah!' 'I was in World War II. I didn't see you there.' Just so quick like that. The guy was dumbfounded."

When Klein recalls the epitome of Catskills humor, he thinks of the comic who played Pvt. Fielding Zimmerman on "The Phil Silvers Show": "Mickey Freeman was a true Borscht Belter. He tells a joke in this thing, 'I was performing in a hospital. This guy is sick. I'm working and working, and he's not laughing. I say, "Well, I hope you get better." He says, "You, too." '

"It still makes me laugh." {sbox}

When Comedy Went to School (not rated) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.

Star students

Here are just a few of the revered comic talents to work the Catskills resorts, the Borscht Belt - whatever you want to call the region. Space constraints do not allow for descriptions of each one's career - so Joan Rivers, please don't take offense and criticize what I'm wearing.

Woody Allen - went from stand-up to one of America's most honored filmmakers

Milton Berle - so popular at his peak that businesses were known to close down during his telecasts

Fanny Brice - the "Funny Girl" herself

Mel Brooks - one of the funniest men in the history of the world (Part 1)

Lenny Bruce - groundbreaking monologuist who challenged the boundaries of acceptable public speech

Sid Caesar - considered by many the father of modern sketch comedy with "Your Show of Shows"; the launching pad for such talents as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart and many, many others